


who are you?

by 264feet



Category: New Dangan Ronpa V3: Everyone's New Semester of Killing
Genre: Angst, Bittersweet Ending, F/F, Post-Canon, Post-New Dangan Ronpa V3, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Recovery
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-17
Updated: 2020-12-17
Packaged: 2021-03-11 04:15:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 760
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28119057
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/264feet/pseuds/264feet
Summary: Maki and Himiko take a personality quiz, 'Which Danganronpa Character Are You?'.
Relationships: Harukawa Maki/Yumeno Himiko
Comments: 6
Kudos: 36





	who are you?

“Hey, look at this.”

Whenever Himiko begins a conversation with that phrase, Maki knows she’s in for something really horrible. She walks over to the laptop and sees a quiz site. The top quiz, as voted by users, is: _Which Danganronpa Character Are You?_

“I don’t see a point in this,” Maki says, sharply. It’s a warning. If Shuichi happened to be in their shared apartment (because where else would they go after the killing game, with no families, no memories, no reality), he probably would have had a panic attack.

The night terrors are coming less frequently for all of them. That thought is as comforting as saying they're only hit by a truck once per week rather than once per day. Maki and Himiko's relationship is built on several foundations, but the strongest one is being there for one another when one of them wakes up crying.

The _Team Danganronpa_ assigned therapist thinks the fewer night terrors, nonetheless, are a sign of progress. The fact that they’re talking at all is proof that no real progress can be made at all, Maki has argued.

Himiko snaps the ‘assassin’ out of her musings. “Aren’t you curious?”

And what bothers Maki more than anything is that she is. Her old self, whoever that had been, would have clicked on this without a second thought. _Team Danganronpa_ had returned her meager belongings, from which Maki pieced together a life of mediocrity and obsession. Her former self is the only person Maki has truly killed.

“Fine. Just to prove it has no power over us.”

They begin the quiz. Maki pulls up a chair next to Himiko at the kitchen table. She rests her cheek against Himiko’s shoulder. Such a display of affection would have once felt embarrassing to her.

Now, neither of them know if anything is real, including the way they feel. Would they have ever wound up this close before the killing game? Or if circumstances in the game had been different? The two girls had been holding one another in a deathgrip in their shared bed, kissing each other desperately as if to prove they were still there, moaning names that didn’t belong to either of them, before either of them stopped to ask the question.

“Nyeh, this quiz is dull. It just outright asked who my favorite Danganronpa character is.” Himiko proceeds to scroll down a ridiculously long list. Sure enough, their names are at the bottom. 

Maki closes her eyes. She doesn’t need to see who Himiko picked. She thinks she already knows. 

She focuses on the sounds of Himiko breathing gently and the occasional clicking of the computer mouse. She glances up a few times to see questions related to Danganronpa trivia. Favorite execution. Favorite murder method.

Their strange final trial had put a dent in Danganronpa’s ratings, but it was nothing that a clip show and the immediate announcement of Season 54 couldn’t fix. Fiction affects reality-- Maki agrees with Shuichi on that. But companies like _Team Danganronpa_ shape thought, and thought shapes fiction.

“Check it out. I got Nagito Komaeda.”

Maki lifts her head up and turns her full attention to the computer again. Apparently, Himiko had finished the quiz.

“That was lame,” Himiko sighs.

“I told you.”

“I don’t know what I was expecting.” Himiko bites back the ‘nyeh’ speech quirk. Had she been written with it? Maki doesn’t know, but she’s been tempted to shave her head these days and it feels related somehow. “Maybe I thought, if I got myself, it would… prove something about me.”

“It proves that you aren’t just some character. You’re more than who they made you into.”

Himiko’s breathing has stopped. Maki takes her hand and squeezes it hard, three times. Focus. Himiko places her feet firmly on the ground and breathes deeply.

Her face is wet with tears when Maki kisses her. There’s something missing, but she’s warm, she’s there, she’s real. That’s the assurance they both need right now. Himiko holds her like a koala until she can catch her breath.

“Nagito…” she murmurs. “Nagito sucks, though.”

For some reason, Maki laughs.

“Perhaps. But you’re--” _Magical. No._ “...Wonderful.”

"So are you, Maki--" The word _roll_ hangs off her lips. 

They sit together until the computer goes on screensaver. Himiko glances at Maki. "D'you want to try the quiz?" 

"... No, thanks." 

* * *

When Shuichi returns home with a month’s worth of groceries, he doesn’t ask questions. The two girls are taking a quiz titled ‘What type of potato are you?’. Shuichi gets Japanese sweet potato.


End file.
